Changes

All the things you don't want to know, but you do.

At the end of last year, I was involuntarily let go (?) from a company I co-founded 7 years ago, a company which (for me) was the continuation and growth phase of the small expert software engineering consultancy I co-founded in 2001. 18 years in total, a solid one third of an entire professional career (which leaves me with the luxury of 10 years in retirement, if you do the math with me).

(?) as part of a restructuring initiative

So, the next 20-25 years of my career are going to be quite important, both for my own development as well as my future prospects. I spent a lot of time thinking about this during the last two months while figuring out what's next, and I wanted to share some of it.

Hindsight

As I mentioned quite a few times to people (dear friends and good folks) I met during my forced sabbatical, "I learned a lot, unfortunately not all good." But, I did learn a lot, if not only about myself. I learned about:

• the importance of paying attention to every little detail, of every step, of every small and not so small decision - all leading up to something I adopted as "manufactured serendipity" many years ago. Manufactured serendipity is a bit like Engineered Karma, in the sense that you can manufacture your own future by strongly believing something will happen, and your everyday microsteps and -decisions will further you towards that something, however karma will haunt you if you don't sweat discussing / questioning / designing / engineering the all-important details. It's easy to skip over details which will bite you later. More specifically, how one sets up organisations, ownership, reporting structures and information flow. Don't assume kinks will work themselves out. Don't let yourself being outsmarted by the details.
• the importance of trust and respect. An organisation needs both as foundational values, as a safety net in order to inspire real debate and actual consensus creation, to achieve shared vision, buy-in and growth. If you only rely on authority or notoriety instead, smart people won't trust you after a while, and will create their own operational truths. In an organisation with trust and respect, people will not be afraid to take ownership, and will speak up freely if their brains or guts tell them something bad is about to happen. (However, don't trust others to engineer your details the way you want them to be. Attention to detail, defining the detail, is your work.)
• the importance of communication. Be precise and trustworthy in your communication. Don't underestimate the memory and listening powers of your peers, don't be ashamed to say when you don't know something. Make sure people are being communicated to, that they know what is happening, or else they will create their own truths and act accordingly. And, the most important part of communication is listening.
• the importance of empathic humility. Spend precious resources (people, time, money) only on important matters. Don't window-dress yourself away from reality. If you're high up the hierarchy, your time is probably very valuable, but never an excuse to waste anyone else's. Take your own notes, plan your own meetings, don't mess with priorities and agendas for your own comfort (or lack of direction), communicate yourself what you want to be heard. Be honest. And listen, listen, listen.

FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

The engine of personal productivity and efficiency is (self-)confidence. It is confidence which gives you decisiveness, enthusiasm, velocity, and the power to complete. Lack of confidence is a time waster, leads to self-doubt, procrastination, jealousy, and ultimately laziness and indifference.

Confidence has many different origins: self-awareness, mastery, patience, eloquence, sharing, peer approval, poise, praise, even hope. Don't let your confidence be taken away from you for reasons out of your control. It is your own personal duty to protect the sources of your confidence.

I'm very happy to have met a few people over the past few months which encouraged me to take time, resting, thinking. I'm not the best do-nothing-er (to say the least), but over time I felt my (self-)blame, anger, frustration and at few times serious self-doubt dissolve into self-awareness: what did I do good, what did I do wrong, what have been my own wins and faults and what those of others? What were my outlooks, my strengths and weaknesses? Over time, this inspired me to move on.

Don't fight FUD, but try to be analytical about it. Don't crawl into a corner of misery or angriness, but be honest with yourself while avoiding self-deprecation.

Me-time

So, I figured I needed some me-time. I deserved some me-time. At least, that's how I thought initially. I granted myself that time. The nice thing of an unexpected holiday during Christmas holiday season is ... well, taking actual time off with your family & friends. Then, I booked some private holiday, did some walking & swimming, movies, the works.

Unfortunately however, it never felt quite right. I came to realise (to no surprise) the importance of being professionally relevant (and busy) as a key part of being happy with myself. So I went ahead and got myself a desk share in a co-working space, and started developing a new professional presence. I was planning to provide strategic technology advice to software companies, on a freelance basis.

I also started meeting people, acquaintances from my professional past. Often, people who I had not met anymore since quite a few years. There was no planning involved, but as word slowly started spreading I was out on the street, people were reaching out, and I took to a "yes" mentality. With the abundance of time I had, there was no point in saying "no" after all.

I felt and feel very lucky to know these people, and grateful for the conversations I had, but my partner kindly reminded me this was also "just" karma at work: these were the people I always gave and had been giving the true picture of myself.

The best me-time I had was simply reflecting on these conversations, reconnecting with myself, remembering the good times and past realisations, encountering and re-appreciating my own core values. Every conversation, every lunch or dinner stripped one layer away, until I was finally left with the naked me. Oh, and I started writing again. ??

Onwards!

At some point, I had to make a decision. The freelance thing didn't feel quite right. The proposition was too vague, too generalist, and I was worried whether it would provide immediate tactical advantage to customers.

Besides, I've always considered myself a caretaker of teams, of shared vision and enthusiasm, of going on a roadtrip together. I realised I need that energy I get from working with other people on a longer-term basis, and I get that energy from a humble, caring, empathic attitude, with the karma that ensues.

So when I got a message asking if I would be interested in "working in aviation", I said "yes" and started talking and thinking... "Do I really need to stay within the domain expertise (customer data systems) of my recent past, do I need to stay at the strategic level, or do I want to get back to my love for building things together?"

As indicated in my last post, I'm feeling a bit tired working on data systems when that means having the best minds of our generation think about how to make people click ads or purchase offers. More specifically, the past two months I realised I was missing the art and craftmanship of software engineering as such, and applicative domains with a clear practical context. Data systems are crazy important but the martech domain wasn't cutting it for me anymore.

Also, the growth stage of said aviation opportunity seemed like a great challenge and a welcome breath of fresh air (pun intended). A slightly smaller team overall (but a larger engineering team!), more centered around a common and specific goal, where I felt my recent experience working through growth challenges as a software business could be of real value.

After meeting the team, the choice became very easy, as I realised the clear fit of shared values and a shared eagerness to build and grow together. I'm excited to have joined Unifly as the company CTO as of mid March. I can't comment much (yet) about the wonderful world of Unmanned Traffic Management systems, but I'm very eager to listen, learn, and grow (with) the team towards world domination. ??

After the drone incidents at Gatwick and Heathrow at the end of last year, the need for strong UTM platforms with deep regulatory and ATM integration is very clear, as new stakeholders want to join the airspace with unmanned vehicles in a safe and reliable way. From what I have seen so far, Unifly is poised to become a market leader in this area, with a unique founder team of aviation and traffic control domain experts, and a solid team of expert software engineers to get that dream going. I'm delighted to be able to play my part in this endeavour, leading the Unifly software teams to deliver results and accelerate on their roadmap.

Resolutions

That all being said, there's a few late 2019 + going forward resolutions I want to state.

1. I will share my goals (hence: resolutions) publicly with my team, and be very transparent about them. I will not let myself getting layered-in again.
2. I will continue to accommodate "yes" time to meet people. At least once a quarter. And if I run out of friends, I will attend workshops, trainings and seminars to meet new. ?? I strongly believe good reflection on goal setting and achievement requires some outsider perspective, and when layered-in, there's a danger of staying in a self-disillusioning bubble of warped reality, like Plato's Cave.
3. I will pay more attention to the details, doing more deliberate what-if analysis, and never use laziness or busyness as an excuse to pass over details.

Now, I pledge you to let me know if I fail to live up to my self-assigned resolutions. I hope this honest post serves as a little bit of inspiration, and I want to thank all people who inspired me, over the past couple of years and especially during the past two months. Karma will get you.

Have a great day!

PS: we're hiring, and have a bright future ahead of us. Seriously, if you've read this far, and aspire a career in product management or software engineering, we need to talk.